Contents

Beka Valentine and Seamus Harper are on the Eureka Maru, returning to the Andromeda with a load of parts & supplies. Beka is giving Harper a hard time about a girl he met, Dierdre, who did not even speak Common. Harper tries to demonstrate his grasp of Dierdre's language, but does poorly.

The Maru is hit by something, which ends up in the airlock it is a large organic looking "beach ball"-like lifepod, with a Perseid in it. Renvik is in bad shape. When they get him out of the pod, he grabs Harper, reaching for his data port. Some sort of charge arcs from the Perseid's mouth to the Dataport, then he collapses, dead, although Harper appears to be (more or less) OK.

Once they get back to the Andromeda, Tyr determines that the Perseid was inflicted with various types of weaponry, poisons, radiation and more. Meanwhile, Harper is given a clean bill of health by Trance. He then starts listing technical medicine techniques to scan his brain, surprising both Trance and Dylan.

Before Dylan could inquire as to how Harper knew about that, the Andromeda is hailed by Marshal Jeger, a bounty hunter representing the Intergalactic Apprehension and Procurement Service. He is looking for Renvik, and has a warrant. Beka tells Jeger the Perseid is dead, but Jeger wants to search the corpse; the Perseid had stolen something that he is trying to recover. Beka does not want to cooperate, because she does not care for bounty hunters, but Dylan does not see much point in resisting him, since the Perseid is already dead and if he was alive, Dylan would conduct an extradition hearing.

As Jeger seals the corpse in a plastic-like substance, Dylan notices a symbol on the Perseid's finger. With Rommie's help, he identifies it as the symbol of the Special Collections Division of the All Systems University. The symbol is used by the senior researchers. The only question Dylan has is what did the Perseid have that was worth dying for.

Harper is having vivid nightmares, mostly based around a war theme. He is also starting several new projects, and babbling in a variety of languages. Rommie is concerned and baffled.

Inside an asteroid, Jeger searches the Perseid, but does not find what he is looking for. He reports his progress to a shadowy, red-eyed figure, whom he seems afraid of. He insists that what's he's looking for might be on the Maru and promises to find it.

The crew is watching Harper at work (on the monitors), singing "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" in Than, Perseid, Vedran and Peruvian. Dylan and Beka go down to see him and wonder what he is doing, and they share Rommie's concern, especially as he does not seem to be getting much sleep. He has made some effective upgrades to the ship and Rommie herself, but he is primarily concentrating on one specific project a replica of the X-1, the first plane to break the speed of sound. Then suddenly, when Harper sees Rev, he gets extremely scared, and says that "you cannot trust Magog". Beka and Dylan calm him down, and then take him to the med deck.

Jeger walks through the Maru airlock door, and finds blue-coloured blood on the floor.

In the med bay, Beka and Trance find that Harper's brainwave are fluctuating off the charts. Beka then starts to make a connections with that Perseid but Harper finishes for her, realizing that the Perseid dumped a data archive into his brain. She suggests they to try to figure out how to get it back out. Harper objects, but he is suffering severe headaches.

Jeger confronts Harper in his workshop. Dylan sees this on a monitor, and rushes to help Harper, calling on Tyr Anasazi for assistance. Jeger and Tyr fight until Dylan arrives. Dylan shoots Jeger with his Force lance. Jeger seems unaffected, but leaves by phasing through the floor of the workshop.

Harper continues to suffer nightmares.

Up on the bridge, the crew start discussing what Jeger is looking for. Rommie and Tyr believe that he is after weapons, but before Beka could suggest otherwise, the Andromeda is hit by a PSP (Point Singularity Projector), a weapon that fires miniature black holes. The ship is seriously damaged, and cannot slipstream. Harper and Tyr are working on repairs, and Rev offers to help. Harper attacks him. Rev dodges, but does not fight back. Dylan intervenes, restraining Harper, but Harper says something in the Magog language that infuriates Rev and he nearly attacks Harper, until Dylan reminds Rev of the Way.

Harper is put in restraints in medical, while Trance works on building a "Neurochemical File" under his guidance, to transfer the data to. They set it up, and start the transfer, but Harper starts to suffer serious side effects, so they only transfer part of the data.

They begin to examine the data they managed to extract. Beka suggests concentrating on images of Magog, based on Harper's reaction to Rev since the data transfer. They find, in the data, a video record of the Magog attack on Brandenburg Tor. While this could be what is affecting Harper, Dylan Hunt says that it cannot be what Jeger wants, because the attack is not a secret.

Rev talks to Harper, in medical, where Harper is still in restraints. Harper tells Rev he is having a hard time dealing with the images of people dying at the hands of Magog. Rev states that he needs "wisdom". He tells him how he deals with his incessant hunger, and teaches him a Wayist mantra: "My pain belongs to the Divine. It is like air, it is like water." This seems to help Harper a bit. During this discussion, Andromeda detects a hostile vessel approaching. Harper convinces Rev to release him from the restraints in order to let him help.

Andromeda fires missiles at the enemy ship, but they go right through it without affecting it. Andromeda has managed to get her slipstream drive back on-line, so Dylan prepares to leave, but Harper launches the Maru, broadcasting a message to Jeger. He claims to be trying to save everyone else by drawing him away, and he is tinkering with the ship's systems. He jumps to slipstream, but does something to the portal he opened to make it a "wall". Andromeda cannot get through the "wall", but Jeger does. Andromeda looks for another way to follow him, but cannot find one, so they have to guess where Harper may have gone.

Trance comes onto the Command Center with something for Dylan. She has been going through the Brandenberg Tor files, and has found a shadowy figure directing the attack the same one that Jeger was reporting to.

Jeger has boarded the Maru, capturing Harper and is intending to extract the data from his head by force, specifically with a laser probe. However, Andromeda has managed to find the Maru by tracking the energy emissions of Jeger's "toys". Dylan, Beka, and Tyr board the Maru, and confront Jeger. Jeger leaves the ship, phasing through the floor. As Jeger's ship is leaving, Andromeda fires on it, but Jeger phases out again just before his ship is destroyed.

As Trance is removing the rest of the data from Harper's brain, he says something in a strange language which Rev does not recognize, but Trance seems to. She does not offer an explanation, but suggests that the data is dangerous, and should probably be destroyed. Dylan says that he wants a copy of the Brandenberg Tor file, and Harper says that he knows of a place where he can store it safely, although he does not specify where.

Jeger reports to the shadowy figure again, begging for another chance. Jeger is "absorbed" by the figure.

Harper apologizes to Rev about "whatever it was" that he said earlier to him. He returns to work on his X-1, but he is not sure how to proceed. The blueprints were in the archive, and that data is now gone from his mind.

Harpers enigma/riddle quote is a reference to, "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.", said by Winston Churchill.

Harper: Anyway, I thought why dwell in hell, get busy.Rommie: What are you building? (undoing coils of wire)Harper: Ah. It's a bird. It's a plane. ahhh, you tell me and we'll both know.

Rommie: Harper, I had no idea you were such a cunning linguist.Harper: Yes!!! Ta se go hallan, the doctor is in. (Rommie stares at him, bewildered)Dylan: I can't say I know the tune.Rommie: It's an old earth folk tune in, lets see, Than, Persied, Harouvian, and that would be Vedran.